Tornado touches down, smacks southern N.J. during intense storms

“As it was happening, stuff was just flying everywhere. Windows were shattering.”

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP — When the skies cleared above Manahawkin Baptist Church Tuesday after a tornado barrelled through, a section of mangled framing shaped like a cross sat perched near a gaping hole in the building’s roof.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Doug Welbourn, the pastor of the church on Beach Avenue in the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township. “I don’t know if God did that or just the weather but it’s kind of an encouraging thing for a bunch of Christians.”